Monarch._


The laws, the customs, and the government of all these provinces were
nearly alike: each had its representative assembly of the three orders,
of the clergy, nobility, and burghers: each had its courts of justice;
and an appeal from the superior tribunal of each lay to the supreme
court at Mechlin.

Public and fiscal concerns of moment fell under the cognizance of the
sovereign. The people enjoyed numerous and considerable privileges: the
most important of them was the _Droit de Joyeuse entrée_, the right of
not being taxed without the consent of the three estates. Commerce,
agriculture, and the arts, particularly music and painting, flourished
among them. The people were honest, frugal, regular and just in their
general habits; more steady than active; not easily roused; but, when
once roused, not easily appeased.

[Sidenote: Brief View of the History of the Netherlands.]

Charles V. made over his hereditary territories in Germany to his
brother Ferdinand; but retained the Netherlands, and annexed them to the
crown of Spain.

With that crown, they descended to Philip the Second, the only son of
Charles.

Unwise and unjust measures of that monarch drove the inhabitants into
rebellion.